pant

• enPR: pănt, IPA^(key): /pænt/

• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -ænt

From Middle English panten, whence also English dialectal pank.

Possibly from Old French pantoyer, a byform or of Old French pantoisier (“to be breathless”) (compare modern French panteler (“to gasp for breath”)), of uncertain origin. Possibly from Vulgar Latin *pantasiō (“struggling for breath when having a nightmare”), from Ancient Greek φαντασιόω (phantasióō, “I am subject to hallucinations”), from φαντασία (phantasía, “appearance, image, fantasy”).

pant (plural pants)

1. A quick breathing; a catching of the breath; a gasp: the panting of animals such as a dog with their tong hung out- as a form of thermoregulation.
2. (figurative) Eager longing.
   • 1995, John C. Leggett, Suzanne Malm, The Eighteen Stages of Love, page 9:

     Indeed, the projections, cravings, and everyday frolics common to trysts among buzz-activist Hollywood stars and starlets, plus their many common folk imitators, go forward with eager pant.

3. (obsolete) A violent palpitation of the heart.
   • c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene viii], page 360, column 2:

     To this great fairy I'll commend thy acts, / Make her thanks bless thee. O thou day o' the world, / Chain mine arm'd neck; leap thou, attire and all; / Through proof of harness to my heart, and there / Ride on the pants triumphing.

• pant-hoot

• “pant”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “pant”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

pant (third-person singular simple present pants, present participle panting, simple past and past participle panted)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To breathe quickly or in a labored manner, as after exertion or from eagerness or excitement; to respire with heaving of the breast; to gasp.
   • 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     Pluto pants for breath from out his cell.

   • 1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Prometheus Unbound:

     There is a cavern where my spirit / Was panted forth in anguish.

   • 1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC:

     Charles had just slipp'd the bolt of the door, and running, caught me in his arms, and lifting me from the ground, with his lips glew'd to mine, bore me, trembling, panting, dying, with soft fears and tender wishes, to the bed

2. (intransitive) To long eagerly; to desire earnestly.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 42:1:

     As the hart panteth after the water brooks.

   • 1733–1737, Alexander Pope, [Imitations of Horace], London: […] R[obert] Dodsley [et al.]:
3. (transitive, obsolete) To long for (something); to be eager for (something).
   • 1633, George Herbert, Love:

     Then shall our hearts pant thee.

4. (intransitive) Of the heart, to beat with unnatural violence or rapidity; to palpitate.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Yet might her piteous heart be seen to pant and quake

5. (intransitive) To sigh; to flutter; to languish.
   • 1709 May, Alexander Pope, “Pastorals. The Fourth Pastoral, or Daphne. […]”, in Poetical Miscellanies: The Sixth Part. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 750:

     [T]he whiſp'ring Breeze / Pants on the Leaves, and dies upon the Trees.

6. (intransitive) To heave, as the breast.
7. (intransitive) To bulge and shrink successively, of iron hulls, etc.

• (breathe quickly or in a labored manner): gasp
• (long for): crave, desire, long for, pine for
• (long eagerly): crave, desire, long, pine
• (of the heart, to beat with unnatural violence): palpitate, pound, throb

From pants.

pant (plural pants)

1. (fashion) A pair of pants (trousers or underpants).
2. (attributive) Of or relating to pants.

   pant leg

Unknown

pant (plural pants)

1. (Scotland and northeast England) Any public drinking fountain.

• OED 2nd edition

• Pont-y-pant

• APTN, NAPT, NPTA

From German Band (“band, belt”).

pant m inan

1. hinge

pant

1. a deposit (on packaging such as bottles and cans)

• dåsepant, flaskepant

• depositum (deposit on a rented home)

Childish alteration of panta (“to reserve”).

pant (defective verb)

1. (colloquial, childish) I call dibs! (used when claiming a right to be the first or only one to do something)

   Pant velja tónlistina. ― I call dibs on choosing the music.

   Ég pant vera R2-D2, þú mátt vera C3PO. ― I call dibs on being R2-D2, you can be C3PO.

pant

1. Alternative form of panten

From Middle Low German pant and Old Norse pantr.

pant n (definite singular pantet, indefinite plural pant, definite plural panta or pantene)

1. pawn (item sold to a pawn shop)
2. a mortgage
3. security (on a loan)
4. a forfeit (in a game)
5. a pledge

• pantelån
• pantelåner
• pantsette

pant m (definite singular panten, indefinite plural panter, definite plural pantene)

1. a (refundable) deposit (e.g. on bottles)

• “pant” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Middle Low German pant and Old Norse pantr.

pant n (definite singular pantet, indefinite plural pant, definite plural panta)

1. pawn (item sold to a pawn shop)
2. a mortgage
3. security (on a loan)
4. a forfeit (in a game)
5. a pledge

• pantelån

pant m (definite singular panten, indefinite plural pantar, definite plural pantane)

1. a (refundable) deposit (e.g. on bottles)

• “pant” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

From German Band via Austrian German.

pȁnt m (Cyrillic spelling па̏нт)

1. hinge

Inherited from Old Swedish panter (“deposit”). From Middle Low German pant and Old Norse pantr. According to SO attested since the early half of the 14th century.

pant c

1. pledge, pawn, item deposited at a pawnshop or otherwise given as a security
2. container deposit, an addition to the price of an article returned when its container is returned to a collection point for re-use
3. (by extension) item that has container deposit
   • 2022 September 26, Rikard Ljungqvist, “Kastade pant från femte våningen mot värdens personal – därför slipper hon vräkning”, in Hem & Hyra‎^[1]:

     Kastade pant från femte våningen mot värdens personal

     Threw bottles and cans from the fifth floor at the lessor's staff

• panta (“to pawn”)

• pant in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• pant in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

From Proto-Celtic *kʷantyos "flat hill", compare Pictish ᚘᚐᚅᚈ (pant, “hollow”).

• IPA^(key): /pant/
• Rhymes: -ant

pant m (plural pantiau)

1. hollow, depression, small valley, dingle, dell

• i bant
• bant

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “pant”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies